• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, March 12, 2025

AI is everywhere, and at SXSW this week I am engaging with a LOT of smart people about it.  I talk about AI often, and I use it every day, but I was inspired to hear how other people who are far more intelligent than I are finding new and interesting ways to use the technology.  What I am coming away realizing is I need to shift my point of view for how AI will be leveraged and for what kinds of use cases it can create.

Retained Knowledge in a Company

One person I met with spoke about how their company was using AI to create a base that replicates endemic knowledge to help when people retire or leave from the company, dramatically decreasing the impact of downsizing or restructuring.  While this is not the most uplifting of topics, many companies realize that when someone walks out the door, they take a lot of knowledge with them.  Imagine the efficiency retained when a company can perpetually learn and not be forced to re-address things like coding or marketing efforts that worked or didn’t work in the past, creating an ongoing learning for the company. 

Competitive Blocking

Another company is using AI in a more nefarious way to look at what their competitors were doing and having AI replicate it.  Strategists looked at companies that were offering new features inside a tech stack, and had AI essentially code a competitive feature in a fraction of the time, allowing their competitors to do the R&D while they benefit.  This is a “black hat” use case that I certainly don’t condone. Nonetheless, it was brilliantly diabolical and showed how AI tools can close the gap between companies.

Competitive Differentiation Where You Least Expect It

One of the more interesting conversations I had was about how people like me, with kids who will be entering the workforce in the next eight to 10 years, are guiding their children.  Many people are guiding them away from things like advertising and media, and steering them more toward traditional blue-collar roles, yet where they can learn how to leverage AI for efficiency.

When we built our house a few years back, we realized most craftspeople are great at their craft and bad at admin, like billing or even simple communications.   Using AI can allow them  not to worry so much about basic processes, freeing them up to perform their craft, which is what they like the best anyway.  The fact that more people are driving their kids toward tangible-outcome jobs like construction repair  is fascinating and signals a distinct difference from our generation, driven toward things like media, advertising and finance.

Maybe AI is going replace some of what we do, and revolutionize the rest.  The opportunity exists to determine where AI can be embedded to make those traditional types of jobs better than ever before. That’s probably my biggest takeaway from SXSW this year.  What’s yours?